Slow iPhone 3G after 3.0 OS update

I'm having problems, too. After I installed OS3 there was a noticeable lag with messaging. I've also experienced some lag in closing applications and swiping between the app screens. Lastly, there's lag when I swipe the screen to use Spotlight--the screen stutters as the keyboard pulls up.

I've got no solution, just here to say me too really. My 3G has been dog slow since upgrading to 3.0, it was always a little laggy in places but now it's just REALLY frustrating. Often the screen input doesn't even seem to respond properly anymore: I press send message and nothing happens, I have to hold my finger on it for a while; I even had trouble answering a call earlier today because the phone wasn't responding properly.

I thought I was imagining it at first but my battery does seem to have reduced too. I love my iphone but I wish I could go back to 2.2...

You didn't say, but have you done a 'Reset'? I was surprised to find last week that someone that I knew well hadn't done a reset on their iPhone in a year, hadn't loaded any updates, had problems with some apps, had problems with some services and had moaned about how bad was the iPhone!

When he was shown how to do a reset and the reset made a difference of massive proportions he said that he would do the update to 3.0 and if he experienced anything 'unusual' then he would do another reset before doing anything else. Surprise, surprise, it worked faultlessly!

He also said that he would check more frequently for app AND OS updates in future!

Result! 😉

Just to add to the general grumpiness of this topic.. My iPhone is so very very slow now after a OS3 'upgrade'

It seems an upgrade in features but a MASSIVE downgrade in phone performance, despite a daily restart.

Can anyone tell me how to revert to OS2???? I only needed copy and paste, and some MMS here n there.. But the usability as a phone has dropped to making me consider going out and buying a Nokia again.

C'mon Apple if your reading these forums. Why the heck do you release software knowing it will cripple our phones.

Here's what I got from calling Apple about my slow 3g running 3.0. I haven't tried it myself because the hard-reset trick seem to work ok.

Apple sent me to this link for instructions on a factory restore back to 2.0:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414?viewlocale=en_US


By the way, has anyone else tried calling Apple instead of just griping to the forums? Could actually result in a fix, not only temporarily for you, but long term for everyone.

its a ploy, make the 3G slow, brag how the 3G-S is so fast
make the regular 3G slow, so we are forced to go buy a new one.

I've had HOURS of my time just wasted trying to get a backup of my iPhone 3G since updating the iPhone to OS 3.0 June 19th. Every time I try the progress bar eventually gets to around 10% or so and just sits there for hours. Absolutely no way to know what the Sam Hill is going on ... if anything. Last night I went to bed early with the iPhone connected to my Powerbook and six hours later I came down and it was STILL around the same place. Eventually something comes up and I have to terminate the backup. A couple hours ago I posted on here to a similar thread complaining about the situation, went out to lunch, came back and can't find the post anywhere on here. Like it's been purged.

I had responded to another user who was making the point that this has happened before ... I also am an early adopter, having my iPhone for 11 months now. I very much recall this happeneing twice before, eventually seeming to resolve itself with no understanding on my part as to how.

It's a real PITA to have both your iPhone AND your Mac tied up for hours on end trying to do something as straight-forward as a backup. C'mon Apple ... why is this happening when you do a big update? Everything was fine on my iPhone until I pulled down 3.0 ... and now I have to invest hours and hours in failed efforts to simply back up my phone? What's up with that? Reminds me of why I left the capricious world of Windows, where sometimes the most basic stuff simply didn't work.

It's not enough to simply say suck it up and let it run forever until it's done. This is not rocket science and y'all can do much better.

Regarding the comment about complaining & doing something about it, obviously this is far from just one person making a frustrated complaint. I have wondered why it seemed so much slower on my phone than it used to.

An upgrade as the 3.0 software is touted as is not at all an upgrade. Considering the features that first off have been standard in most phones
between 5-10 years (stereo bt to mms) are now barely a part of the iPhone. Additionally things that most other phones include (a better camera and video recording/voice commands) are still withheld from the 3G, (meaning the phone is capable of video recording and voice commands)so dont knock people spending significantly more than others in terms of cost of equipment and monthly services for being frustrated when something that worked FINE works worse now than it used to.

People are trying to figure out why, with little response. They came to the forums instead of wasting cell minutes calling customer support or trying to get support online. Also not all of us are blessed to live near a town where there is an apple store. In fact I have driven to the one 90 miles away after I was told by Apple to drive there and that they would resolve my problem. After I arrived they turned me around to go home telling me to call AT&T. I called both AT&T & Apple and eventually apple support did help. Don't assume because you're reading a thread that people that are complaining, haven't tried to call or contact apple.

Regarding this issue, I have not called apple. WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO!! IT SHOULD WORK!! For all the bragging Apple does about their superior technology, how is it that there are people complaining that the 3.0 upgrade doesn't work as good as 2.x?

Btw, I have tried hard reset, resetting all my settings and as I sit here I am restoring my phone which is a lengthy and annoying process. And to my own fault, the last time it was backed up was (Why I don't know. I assumed each time it synced, it backed up) 6-4-09. I had already clicked to restore it and it was in process when I noticed this so now I'm going to have to deal with getting it how I want it, which again, WE SHOULDN'T have to do.

I upgraded to get features that other phones have had for YEARS. Things that Apple acts as if it is blessing us with, in this update. This is far from the only problem noted online, but it is the one I am having so I decided to respond to the person who ridiculed people for venting their concerns and determine a problem THRU networking. You don't always call a business each time something goes wrong. Sometimes you communicate with other users to see what they have done to resolve a problem, you try it and THEN you wait on hold or wait in a store for them to maybe help you. Out there, there's another person who is ridiculing someone for NOT trying the forums. To point out, obviously many people have contacted apple or these solutions would not be here. And to the person who posted the bunk link, how bout next time you try just posting oh wait.. how bout you don't. I tried your link and surfed around for about 10 minutes before writing this and there was no where that one could downgrade back to 2.0, only upgrade. Your post was a waste of time, instead of asking "By the way, has anyone else tried calling Apple instead of just griping to the forums? Could actually result in a fix, not only temporarily for you, but long term for everyone." It was borderline rude..and it didnt help.

Message was edited by: lanisan

Sssssllllloooowwww. I listen to my music on A2DP and play Aurora Feint II Arena Daemons with the game music/sound off. The blocks go very very slow when it comes to using the magic from the toad. All the tiles glow and it inches each time it glows.

I figured it's because I have 3G and getting the 3GS to get that fixed.

it likes upgrading from XP to Vista...

Lanisan,

Sorry to hear of your rough ride. I don't think everyone has had the same experience, but yours is very poor indeed.

Perhaps I was to terse in my remark about calling Apple. Here's the point. Apple, and most companies with large tech support divisions, tracks the time spent on every support. In fact, it hits their bottom line. They pay those support people money, so it costs them money when they create problems we call them about.

So, I say, call Apple. Spend time on the phone with them asking them to fix the problems their half-baked updates caused. Spend a LOT of time with them until you are satisfied, if possible. Spend the time, cost THEM the money, and you're doing yourself and all of us a big favor. You're hitting Apple where it counts...their bottom line. You can gripe on the forums all you want, and if the vent is good for you, great, but to get this fixed, everyone with a slow 3g needs to get on the phone and call them, and not let them off the hook until your phone at least works as well as it used to before the update.

Yes, I know it's aggravating, and frustrating, I've done it. And you're not going to get 3.0 to run well on your 3g anyway, not until they fix it. What we're doing with all of this is motivating them to fix it before it costs them big time. I know, too late, right?

Now THAT will at least get their attention, because the volume of calls and time spent shows up on the daily logs. Posting here doesn't have anywhere near the same effect, though sometimes forums turn up a tip or two, they aren't watched with the same detail, and don't cost Apple time and money.

When you call, get the name of the person you talk to, your case number, etc. If they tell you to do something (like drive to the Apple store), log it, so you have something to show that they've messed up.

Yes me too.. switching apps is very slow. Texting, going from one person to another. Picture browsing, etc. just about everything.. Is there anyway we can downgrade to the older one?

Hi everyone,

I deactivated the spotlight search (General Settings under the Home option) by unchecking all the options since I figured it might be similar to MS Windows lagging if you keep the indexing/active search service running. Then I did a restore on my phone (backed up iPhone, restored via iTunes) and there seems to be improvement in speed. I'll give this a few days to see if performance and battery life improve. Based on what I've read here and elsewhere, a restore doesn't help much. I'll let you guys know. Fingers crossed cuz my iPhone didn't slow down from 3.0 upgrade until a bit later so there's a chance this can let me down again.

Message was edited by: calgirl2

Here’s a list of the solutions (so far) for a slow iPhone after 3.0 update.

*You’ll find how to get back to 2.0 in Solution 5.*

Disclaimer: This is simply a list of solutions culled from several sources. The author take no responsibility for the effect of these procedures. The best recommendation is still to Call Apple Support, register your issue, and burn their time finding a solution that works for you. But if you want to go it alone, here’s the list:

*1. Hard reset.* Source: Applecare support rep., by phone.

Do this once every 24hrs, more often if needed. Hold down the Home button and the top button at the same time. Keep holding while the “Slide to Power Off” message is displayed (don’t actually slide to power off, though), and keep on holding until the Apple logo appears. The phone will eventually re-boot. Many have found this makes a big improvement in speed, and while it should be unnecessary, doing it once a day makes the speed issue either go away completely, or become minimal in most cases. It apparently doesn’t work for everyone, though. According to the Applecare rep, the problem is even if you exit out of an app, some of it remains in memory. If you use a lot of apps, eventually memory is "used up" and the iPhone runs slow. This seems possible, but strange, given the phone that prompted this call to support was a half-full 16gig unit. Are we to assume using apps without a hard reset eventually eats up most of the free 8gig? Or is there a much smaller "system partition", or separate system RAM? Experts care to comment? Regardless, this works pretty well for many users.

*2. Turn off “Spotlight”.* Source: forums.

Go to Settings > General > Home > Search Results > Uncheck all options. Note: From what we can tell, this doesn’t actually disable Spotlight at all, but may improve speed somewhat. *This solution has not been confirmed effective.*

*3. Turn off Push.* Source: forums.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Fetch New Data > Push (off). Some users find this helps a little in keeping the iPhone running faster, longer, by limiting the amount of data exchange. Doesn’t help everyone.

Doing all 3 above solutions helps your 3G iPhone run 3.0 as well as possible. If your phone is still sluggish, or you'd prefer the kind of speed you had in the "good old 2.0 days", follow the steps below, particularly step 5, which reverts to 2.0.

*The next two items are Restore solutions. Note: you must backup your iPhone before you start this!* See the Backup Comments at the bottom of this post. And note the following paragraph from the Apple Support document on this:

+* Restoring from backup is different than performing a full software restore. Restoring from backup restores the settings, applications, and other information saved in a previous backup. Performing a full software restore will erase your iPhone or iPod touch and restore it to the original factory settings.+

More information about the "Software Restore" function is below.

4. Restore from Backup. Source: Applecare Support Rep. See the link below, go to the section called *“Backing up your iPhone or iPod touch”*. NOTE: Since “Restore from Backup” will restore all your apps, media and settings, it may accomplish very little. You’ll end up with a fresh installation of what you just backed up, V3.0 and all. Might help, but probably not much.
Link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414?viewlocale=en_US

5. Full Software Restore. Source: Applecare Support Rep., and Apple support documents.

This is the way back to 2.0. See the link below. Go all the way down to the section called “Restoring your iPhone or iPod touch”. This will put your phone back to what it was out of the box, clean, and OS V 2.0. Then you may restore your apps, media, and settings. It’s a bit of a pain, but if you prefer the old 2.0 OS, and many here are asking for it, this is the path. But be careful not to “update” the OS, or you’ll be installing 3.0 again! You’ll be asked to update your phone software every time you sync, so be ready to decline it until the next version of iPhone OS 3 is out that fixes all of this (no rumor here, just hoping).
Link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414?viewlocale=en_US

On a personal note, I've decided to stick with 3.0 for now. I do a hard reset once a day, and everything seems normal. Mine's a 16gig 3G, purchased in January 2009. It might be useful for posters to indicate the total memory and purchase date to see if there's any correlation.

*_Backing Up_*

One thing I've noticed is that when certain apps are installed, backup is slow or stalls completely. I discovered that by canceling the backup, but just syncing, then from iTunes remove some apps in question (one called AmbiScience gave me grief), I could get Backup to work well. At least one app had my Backup stalled. Once it was given an update, the problem went away. You might need to fine tune your phone by selectively removing unused or unnecessary apps to see if your backups run smoothly. I'm set to run a backup every time I sync, it's the safe way.

in response to bit mover's #5 suggestion, restoring "to factory setting" DOES not bring you back to 2.0. you need to download the 2.0 firmware from a third party website and "restore from backup" by directing itunes to the 2.0 firmware file to backup. this is not supported by apple, meaning they do not suggest or allow you to do that and you need to find the file yourself. i know this because i restored my iphone and it stayed at 3.0 and so many websites would not be offering the 2.0 firmware if it was as easy as an itunes restore.


so update on my restored phone. speed (launching apps, screen rotation, browsing internet) and battery have improved greatly. auto brightness problem fixed. typing is still pretty slow and it doesnt recognize all my keystrokes if i type quickly. overall still slower than 2.0 but doesnt irritate me anymore. have had a handful of severe crashes that required hard restart (i hard restart my phone 2x daily just to keep up speed anyway).

still, i suspect that in a week or two, my phone will slow to a crawl again.